Octopath Traveler 2 Review (PS5, also on PS4, Switch, PC) | Backlog Battle 

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I loved octopath 1, but the sequel genuinely makes the first game feel like a proof of concept. It improves every single facet from the first game. I can't get enough of it. I've honestly barely put it down since it came out.

One of my favorite thing about this game is how Boost affects literally everything. Your percentage chance to steal or capture goes up, you can target more enemies with multi-target skills, hit more times, do more damage, inflict more or stronger status effects, etc., etc. So satisfying.

My copy of Octopath 2 only arrived a couple of days ago, but I'm so looking forward to digging in! This review has me even more excited, I loved the first game and hearing that this is a step up in nearly every respect is amazing. My jaw actually dropped when you showed the visuals from the original side by side!!

You can't go wrong if you're a fan of rpgs when playing this game. I've enjoyed it so much.

Awesome review! I especially like the part about the merchant! (what do you mean "biased"?) ;P Cheers and thank you for the kind words! :)

This game has been a very sweet surprise, makes you think the SquareSoft days are finally back

This is easily one of the most beautiful games I've ever seen.

I loved the first one because of its combat system, team building, and soundtrack, but I did feel that the narratives were mostly just vehicles to dungeons with good bosses as the reward. Beyond the obvious improvements from its predecessor, Octopath 2 has really surprised me with its writing, I'm following all these threads closely, paying attention to oddities and small details that feel important, and overall it feels much more engaging. The original game had be replaying due to its combat system, but this one is so much more exciting to progress through, its not just one of my favorite turn-based combat systems anymore, Octopath 2 is probably one of my favorite turn-based RPG's period.

Asano and the team's work has been simply excellent. I still need to finish the first one, but I'm excited for when I do get to this one

Also, i looooooved the first game, it actually brought my love for gaming back to me. But this definitely has more than one upped it!

Convinced me on the preview. Review sealed it purchased! Story was good in the demo can't wait for more

Currently spoiled for jrpg’s and I love it! Octopath 2 and live a live were a breath of fresh air for me, both traditional but so well made I enjoyed every minute with them. Can’t wait for like a dragon 2 and persona 3 reload in a couple of months

Fantastic review! I'm definitely going to pick this up. I wonder why they didn't release Octopath Traveler 1 onto console too. I would have loved to have played that too with trophy support.

I've been really having a great time with this game so far! I loved the first one, and I think they improved upon a lot of things while still keeping to the original formula. I know it still won't be for everyone, but personally I'm very happy! My only criticism so far is that, while the game is definitely more gorgeous in general, I miss the sparkling effects in snow and sand areas from the previous game. And I'm not sure whether the soundtrack beats the first one (which was an 100/10, so hard to follow up on), but I've only done most chapter 1s so far, so maybe my judgment is too hasty 😅

As soon as you said it was all about one game - FF6 - I knew I found the right channel. I have been playing OT2 and I believe the game developers succeeded in bringing that feeling we all had as kids playing FF6 and other games around that time period. While I do feel the story never reaches the full potential like FF6 did, it still has so many powerful elements and in some ways pushes what was an old, decrepit genre forward in a cool and unique way. So far I'm 16 hours in and I am finding the gameplay very enjoyable, almost meditative. The music also is really great stuff, all in all it's a 9/10 for me and I'll play a game like this ALL DAY over stuff like Xenoblade.

I don’t have a lot of classic JRPG experience, but I am intrigued by this game and might try it out sometime! Thanks for the review!

I put over 60 hours into the first game but didn't beat it. The changes to the sequel seem like huge pluses! Thanks for the video

Been playing it on my steam deck and absolutely loving it.

Ah, my wallet will not be able to keep up with these games! Excited to get this one when I have the budget 😊

Can someone help me? Is this game 8 seperate games with how tge characters work. Or just 8 seperate ch. 1 with over arching story im new tp this debating on buying it

I'm definitely going to play this, just for adjusting my expectations: Do purple chests still need to be opened by the thief? I kept Therion in my party just for that.

Thanks for this video, you really covered everything well with great detail and enthusiasm--you made me want to buy it. But, I decided to try the demo first. I love everything about it except one thing that is often a deal breaker for me with RPG's: I can't stand the automatic random battle generator that happens every 8 seconds of wandering the world! I want to explore, and sometimes I don't feel like fighting but would rather advance the story. Modern RPG's have addressed this traditional system in a variety of ways, my favorite being the little enemy avatars that wander the open wield and begin a battle IF you bump into them. At least I can try to avoid them if I want to. Now, I'm really on the fence about buying this game, as amazing as everything else in the game is. Excessively frequent and forced random battles really ruin it for me. 😢 But thanks for the great review, it was a very fun and balanced look at the game!

Another fantastic review video, fitting for a fantastic game!!! Im still only several hours in with only 4 party members but I can confidently say this is a gem. Going to be a strong contender for many categories come time for the Backlog Battle Awards

You have convinced me. Despite the issues I had with OT1, I need to get this game.

Currently it’s definitely in my goty contender list…while i REALLY liked fire emblem engage and the combat is amazing, this has amazing gameplay and storytelling plus characters. Wild hearts is sick but OMG did it launch buggy lol.

Thank you alex for teh Review as Always ! Are you planning a review of "PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo"? I know you rarely have VN here on the channel, so I'm interested if you might be interested

Great review! Sold me the game 🤣 Greetings from Croatia.

Glad you mentioned FFVI. On release on the SNES FFVI pretty much scored a lot higher than CT in all publications with CT being praised but called a lighter story than FFVI and not as deep. However, after the huge success of FFVII many people looked for other high quality square soft games and played CT for the first time on the PS1 whilst the FFVI release on PlayStation had horrible load times for the battles. Thus, many saw it as a better game, and now see CT as the best all time RPG of that era. It didn’t help that random battles dropped in popularity and CT was seen as more modern. I agree though that FFVI has the better story, characters, music score, and Octopath traveler 2 brings back a lot of what makes FFVI a great game. FFVI is still hugely popular after all years, being voted the 3rd best FF in 2021 in a national Japanese TV channel and number 2 in a yahoo Japan vote last year(yahoo is still a popular search engine in Japan). In the west many see FFVI as the best FF still, and I`m glad the pixel remasters of 1-6 are being released on console soon. I wish FFVI would get a HD2d remaster though (they did the opera scene in HD2d for the pixel remaster).

is healing in octopath traveler very hard ? how can I heal my team ? what If I don't have a healer in my team ? what's the way to heal in boss fights ?

SquareEnix has been very hit and miss the past 10+ years (more miss than hit in my book). However, team Asano has consistently delivered game that range from very good to excellent. I have just finished the first of each character’s but this looks like an excellent game that is better in all aspects than OT

Just started the first Octo on switch. I’m new to Turn based RPGs. This is only my second one. First being DOS2. I’m enjoying it a lot and love the portability of the switch to play this game. It’s a perfect handheld game.

Whhat an amazing review for an amazing game. You are one of my favourite content creators at the moment..thank you! 🙏☯️

My only complaint is that the map has so many places to go that at some point you lose track of which places you’ve visited and which ones you plan to visit in the future, since you can’t put any markers on the map

I really really want to play this now! I have to finish soul hackers 2 and then play Trails to Azure. However this review has jumped this to my queue after azure. It will be a nice break between azure and cold steel 3.

Hot _DAYUM_ this game is good so far. I’ve just finished everyone’s first chapter.

Great review and great game i loved the first one but this one is amazing i kinda regret not getting it on the switch feels weird playing it on a ps5 i don't know why

So....I finally decided to pick this up for our PS5. I planned to buy it new but many other games got in the way and my plate is not just full it's overflowing. However, the sale price for Octopath Traveler 2 was just to damn good too pass up. I got it for free, 100% lock, stock, and barrel free from GameStop (buy 1, get 1 free). Addendum- While I loved Chrono Trigger it was Final Fantasy III that made me into the JRPG player I am today. I got it for my Snes on a whim and never looked back. I still call Summon, Espers from time-to-time. Although I don't consider Octopath Traveler a 16-bit esque title. No, for me it is very 32-bit hand drawn sprite era...Suikoden 1+2, Dragon Force 1+2, Star Ocean, ect... For reference- The first Octopath Traveler is available for the Xbox One, Xbox One X, Series S, Series X, PS4, PSPRO, PS5, and Switch. It has been widely available for everyone for a very long time.

Yeah, yeah this is all fine and dandy but THE key question wasn't answered: is there that sweet dancer skill exp×100? :) Nice review!

I love this review 👍

You got me at "beloved FFVI".

Is it ok to play Part 2 if i've never played 1? I only have the ps5 and have no wish of playing it on pc. Don't have a switch either

Feels like that banner has continously been expanding since Xenoblade Chronicles 3 came out

Just super bummed it’s not coming to Xbox 😢. Loved the first game. While I do have access to other systems, I’d prefer to play the sequel on the same platform so I’m going to hold out a little to see if there’s any news of an eventual port.

I want this game so bad right now, ngl.

I'm gonna be Blunt, I was not the biggest fan of the 1st octopath traveler as I found it to be pretty boring. And pretty overhyped for what it was. So I did assume that 2 was gonna be more of the same until I played the demo, realize that I like 3 characters in the cast that they feel more compelling than the characters from the 1st game and I'm like you know this is definitely better than the 1st game. I mean yeah the combat is still exactly the same but the differences are strong for me to not be that disappointed in it and at least leveling won't be that much of a problem. The sprite work is definitely improved from the 1st and again I love the characters I have played with. The cute jungle girl is a sweet gentle soul, the sexy thief gave me so much Primrose vibes that she is my favorite girl and Hikari...... He is my favorite male character simply due to the fact that when he starts off his story. it is incredible and leading up to the start of it made me go I want to play through his story and go through it. I will admit that it does suck that they still haven't fixed the issue of the characters don't really interact with each other all that much and are only limited to being in the shadow realm but at least the crossed path system kind of fixes it a little bit for 2 characters that are a pair. And like I said there's like 3 characters I like out of the initial 8 and it's only those 3 but I see that as an improvement over the 1st game where the only character I liked was Primrose. Overall, I may buy this game because I enjoyed the demo that much so fantastic review of the game Alex!

Great review. So much better than IGN's review.

Graphics wise, this is what Mario RPG remake should have been

Ive played halfway through the first one and loved only stopped do to lack of interest of story and the grind now that i am played secind now it is so much better game because you don't really need to grund that much and i have only 3 hkurs or so and ive notice a massive improvements with the game i can definitely see why this game is people's favorite this year

I friggn hope they remake ff6 like this

Octopath traveler 2 is causing my PS5 to shut down at the beginning of chapters at random. This is happening to some other players I found. And no, my ps5 is not dusty and I reinstalled game. Mostly happens with Osvald when starting chapter and text rolls.

Just beat the last characters story partitio last night Genuinely enjoyed every second of every story and every side quest etc still not done with post game and side quests but I cant drop this game love the art style love the voice acting love the stories and interactions genuinely so happy to have experienced this with you all as well thank you to the community

I played about 40 hours of Octopath Traveler, then I got bored with it, the lack of interaction between characters and the heavy grinding made me quit the game. Looks like the sequel is more of the same with some improvements, hmmmm, I'm a bit on the fence for this one. Graphics, music, and the combat system are great in this series though.

I had my complaints with the first one, but it was still a good game. Not great. I really can’t do random battles anymore though. When I was a kid playing Jrpgs it didn’t bother me, but the first game was wayyy to long and this still has random battles and it’s the main thing holding me back from buying.

My sister in law let me borrow OT1 2 years ago..due to other game commitments i never played it. Finally those commitments were broken and i finally decided to try it. Holy. Crap. I was never so invested in a game. Then i got 2 and honestly its the only game ive been playing for the past 3 weeks. I love exploring and before i knew it..i was 42hrs in, lv75-80 with my main team and realized "oh crap..i havent done any story past chapter 1" This game is EASILY one of the best games of this generation.

I'm honestly a little disappointed in the game. While I do feel like the story is a massive improvement, a lot of the gameplay elements in Octopath feel dated. It's very slow moving, and can get a little boring at times.. I don't know if I've grown out of games like this or just have evolved with the times, but Random Encounters... especially low level ones.. feel so annoying these days that it makes me not even want to play. I think a lot of companies have done a good job of modernizing their older franchises and changing with the times, but Square Enix is stuck in the past. I feel like they hardly added anything new to the game to make it feel fresh. To me, it just feels like the first game.

The experience gain per character killed it for me. Grinding,....No.

Please fix your title. That group worked really hard and put a game on the Switch. That's this games home. Not the Ps5. SWITCH should have top billing.

Can't wait until they release the soundtrack, the first game's was amazing but I've heard the second one's even better!